Dave Mackay always hated the photograph. It is August 1966, Tottenham Hotspur are playing Leeds United at White Hart Lane and Mackay has his right fist tight-hold of the shirt of a fellow Scot, United’s Billy Bremner, who hold his arms apart in submission.

Referee Norman Burtenshaw, his whistle already his lips, is hurrying to the scene while Spurs’ Terry Venables just looks worried.

It is a snapshot not just of a particular moment, but one that sums up a lost time in football, when “men were men”, tackles thundered in, and talented players were supposed to jump high enough to avoid being clattered.

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In 2010, Mackay told journalist Ian Abrahams: "The famous picture is one that a lot of football fans like. I am into my seventies now and I still get copies of them sent to my house for me to sign, which I do, all of them. While other people like the photograph, I don't because it portrays me as a bully, which I am not and never have been.”

Rams stars who played alongside will vouch for that. Fans who saw him play for Derby County don’t really care. Either way, when Dave Mackay died in March 2015, at the age of 80, there was an outpouring of grief at the loss of the man whose signing signalled the start of a wonderful era. The statue of him bursting out of a wall at Pride Park says it all.

Probably the most imaginative, brilliant, inspired thing that Brian Clough ever did was to sign Dave Mackay for Derby County. Probably the most surprising thing that Dave Mackay ever did was in agreeing to join the Rams.

Dave Mackay clashes with Billy Bremner

The football world was astonished when the man who was already a football legend in two countries threw in his lot with Clough’s developing team at the Baseball Ground in July 1968.

Consider Mackay’s pedigree at that point: Born in Edinburgh in November 1934, he had won Scottish League, League Cup and Scottish FA Cup winners’ medals with Heart of Midlothian – no mean feat in a game usually dominated by Glasgow’s Old Firm.

In March 1959, Bill Nicholson signed Mackay for Tottenham Hotspur for £30,000, which equalled the British transfer fee record for a wing-half. With Spurs he was a member of the team that won the first League and FA Cup double of the 20 century, helped them to retain the Cup the following year, 1962, and win it for a third time in 1967.

Twice he suffered a broken leg, and he missed the 1963 European Cup-winners’ Cup Final because of a stomach injury. But each time he fought back and when Brian Clough described signing Mackay as “the best day’s work of my life”, no one disagreed with him.

Rams fans certainly found it almost impossible to grasp that such a great player – how on earth he was capped only 22 times for Scotland will forever remain one of football’s great mysteries – would be wearing a Derby County shirt for 1968-69.

But he did, and for the next two seasons as well, conducting a master class, now as a central defender. Mackay was then 33 years old. He had never possessed great pace, but then he didn’t need to.

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Once the inspiration of Tottenham’s midfield, now he patrolled the Rams’ back line, a mere clap of the hands and a nod telling young players where to stand and what to do. He tidied up loose ends. And led.

The barrel-chested Mackay, who stood only 5ft 8ins tall, still had his tackle. That fine football writer, Bryon Butler, said that it could have earned Mackay “a living felling trees, demolishing walls or breaking up tanks”. Another writer likened it to “a clap of thunder”. Derby County’s opponents would soon taste it.

Clough had arranged a pre-season trip to Scotland. Mackay remembered: “Our first game was at St Johnstone. Going up on the coach I was looking at John Robson and thinking that he was so slight, he had to be a winger.

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Craig Ramage

I didn’t like to ask him where he played but I was looking around, trying to build a picture in my mind so that when the team was picked I’d have an idea of who everyone was.”

Thirteen thousand spectators saw Mackay made his Rams League debut, in a 1-1 Second Division draw at Ewood Park in August 1968. Four days later, more than 21,000 turned out to see his Baseball Ground bow in a routine Football League Cup match against Chesterfield.

The Rams won 3-0, and Mackay strolled around at the back, organising a defence that included the young Roy McFarland, John Richardson and John Robson.

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That Saturday afternoon, 24,000 saw Blackpool draw 1-1 at Derby, and when Chelsea arrived for a League Cup third-round replay in early October, more than 34,000 roared on the Rams to arguably the most memorable victory in the club’s history. Mackay was at the centre of it, lion-hearted, urging, inspiring.

He was now the highest-paid player in the Football League. No Rams fans would argue that he wasn’t worth every penny. Derby County were bound for the First Division, and Dave Mackay led the charge as they raced to the title.

At the end of the season the Football Writers’ Association elected him joint Footballer of the Year, along with Manchester City’s veteran skipper, Tony Book. There were many who felt that Mackay should have had the honour to himself.

As the Rams settled themselves into the First Division, Mackay proved that he was still a force in the top flight. In his final season for Derby County, 1970-71, he finished with a full house of League appearances – 42 – for the first time in his career. He was then in his 37 year. It was a remarkable testament to his dedication and fitness.

In November 1971, Mackay left to become player-manager of Swindon Town. Twelve months later he took over as manager of Nottingham Forest. Then came a second Derby County career.

In October 1973, along with his assistant, Des Anderson, he became the Rams’ manager, taking over in the turmoil that followed the departures of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. It was a situation unique in football and was, at one and the same time, the best and the worst job in the game. Mackay had inherited a team as talented as any. But they didn’t want him. They wanted Brian Clough.

There followed six weeks without a victory, but by the end of the season Mackay had won over the players. The Rams finished third to qualify for the UEFA Cup; it was a remarkable achievement.

In 1974-75, Derby were League champions for the second time. A year later they finished fourth and reached the FA Cup semi-finals. Mackay had brought in Bruce Rioch, Francis Lee and Charlie George.

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Alas, the semi-final defeat by Manchester United at Hillsborough proved a watershed in the affairs of Derby County. The following season began badly and there was boardroom criticism of Mackay’s “liberal” management style.

In November 1976 he asked for a vote of confidence. There was much shuffling of feet and staring at the ceiling. And for the second time in three years Derby County let go a manager who had just won them the First Division title.

Dave Mackay went on to manage in England and the Middle East. Derby County began a slide that took several years to arrest.